Do you know the number one thing that stops people from succeeding online? Can you take a guess?
It’s lack of consistency.
Consistency is the number one determinant of success. You’ve got to show up, produce, and deliver. Over and over.
We mentioned consistency in the promotion article of this series on creating a thriving business in this virtual economy. But it is relevant even beyond promoting.
This week we’re diving into the production side of your online business. And we can’t leave consistency out of the production picture.
Just because your products will be virtual, it doesn’t mean it won’t take effort and energy. You’ll need to be productive. Consistently.
Production is about the logistics of your offers (how you’ll deliver). But it’s also about keeping productivity high.
How to deliver your offers
You may think you’re ready to set up your payment processor so that you can receive funds. But what happens when someone purchases from you? How is your offer delivered? Get clear on this before you accept payment. You need to establish the logistics of your offer delivery.
For example, let’s say you’re a personal trainer, and you create a downloadable course with videos and a pdf that help people get a specific fitness result.
When someone purchases, the course, you must have a clear line of action they take to access what they’ve purchased. Along with that, they need to receive email communication from you (this can be automated) explaining how they can get in touch with you with questions, comments, feedback on the course.
Remember, technology isn’t perfect. There may be times a person purchases and for some reason they are unsure how to access their product/service. They may also have have technical difficulties.
If you want to keep customer satisfaction high and refunds low, create a clear delivery plan and flow for your offers.
Once created, test it to make sure everything is in order and functions well from the customer/client side.
Because building a virtual business may be a new way of working for you, I’m also sharing tips to help you stay productive and efficient.
Ideas for keeping productivity high
Working from home on the internet may seem ideal, but it can be challenging. There are distractions everywhere at home. There are also a lot of distractions online.
Here are few ideas for keeping your productivity high:
*Set a daily schedule
*Have a dedicated workspace at home
*Get buy-in from other family members so that you’re allowed to work without interruption
Now that you have your production logistics in place, and ideas for staying productive, here are top ideas for staying consistent with your virtual business building.
The (not so secret) secret to succeeding online
Consistency.
Most people who do not succeed online (and offline, for that matter) struggle with consistency. This is the single key to getting results and by being consistent alone you can place yourself in a better position than most of your competition.
You see, people are distracted nowadays. Their attentions always going elsewhere. Couple that with fast disappointment and you have a recipe for giving or changing directions too early.
Fast disappointment is the result of not getting immediate results. But you won’t get immediate results. Not with this or with anything. Results will only come from consistent product creation, promotion, and stellar delivery and customer services. This is how you get results and start generating income. It takes consistent effort.
The best way to ensure you stick with your goals and doing the work that needs to be done is to set a solid timeframe. For example, some people work in 90 day sprints. When you do this, you create a plan and strategy for product crayon and promotion that you’ll stick to for 90 days. Barring something major happening, you commit to this plan and the actions you need to take day in and day out.
By setting a timeframe, you give yourself a container to work within for a set amount of time. It motivates you to stick with your goals during that period and also discourages you from changing directions too soon.
Get productive, establish a system for delivering your products and services, and keep building.
Together, we can do this!